First thing that I noticed were the paragraph indentations. The function of an indent is give the reader an easy entry point in a body of text, which you have already accomplished by making each paragraph it's own block. It will be much cleaner without them.

Nice layout; a good balance of design-at-all scales.

Agree with the type comment above... also, you don't usually use both an indent and a full return between paragraph. Also also, you don't usually indent the first paragraph in a page/area.

Also, some of your type is running into each other because the leading is so tight between head and sub-head (see the page on Stop Motion Animation for reference).

I'm not convinced about running the type over the junction of two images (see page 9). It seems messy, like you didn't know where to put it. It's fine when it's just over one image (as on page 10) though.

Also not convinced by the model shot coming in on the edge of page 24... it's just not as high quality an image as the rest of what you're doing, and the spread might be nicer with less symmetry anyway.

I know this seems nit-picky, but that's because you've actually done a fairly good job leading us through projects and combining multiple images of multiple types together, and the place you are the weakest is combining type and image.

oh, p.s.-nice pacing with the intro spreads for each project being a bit more spare. It provides a nice rest for the eyes.

Im trying to put together a portfolio for a masters of architecture program... I dont really have alot of designing/art background, my bachelors was in an unrelated field (environmental planning)... I was just wondering is this the kind of calibar work admissions boards expect from someone entering the MArch 1 program (someone who doesnt have a related undergrad degree)? I feel that portfolio is way out of anything I could possibly put together... I am trying to read as much as I can and practice as much as I can to get my drawing/rendering/designing skills up to an acceptable level, but if this is the kind of work grad schools look to see than I really dont see any point because I have no idea how to make things like that... any advice?

i dig it.

Thanks for the response. As of right now it seems type is my issue, and I can admit I struggle with it. Thanks for reinforcing my concern. Right on mark, with the paragraph indentations comment - I am going to see how the alternative works.

Rationalist: yeah that text overlap is bad on the stop motion page. I keep forgetting to fix that. And ditto on the text between two images. That is my least favorite spread and have consistently struggled with it. Need to keep playing.

on the model picture you were referring to...do you mean the actual image is bad quality (like resolution?), or does the actual composition of the picture not do anything for you? Perhaps I could make a separate 'b&w model picture spread' like I did for a few of the other projects for continuity purposes.

Interesting you said that about the 'blank'white spaces for rest because I was considering adding collages of process sketches for each respective project. I feel what I am lacking lies in the 'looser' /process side of the designs - which I have plenty of. Seems to take away from the 'neatness' of the overall - so I'm on the fence.

JOBEN:

No.
My portfolio wouldnt seek admission into a MARCH 1 program. (I would hope, that is.) I'm working on a 5 year professional degree so I would, ideally, go March II or III depending on the program. You arent expected to have this type of work, but work that would demonstrate your artistic inclincations/interests. A lot of people go your route, so dont be discouraged,... no worries.

i don't like all the little boldly emphasized words, because as i read them i pause on those words and it's a bit torturous to get through it all.

just my opinion, not a big deal and i agree the portfolio looks great!

I agree with FraC, the bold words may be a little much. Maybe if there were less of them it'd be different.

And I agree with your perception on page 9. Something is not working there. Unbalanced.

all in all, very nice.

i noticed a couple of formatting issues that you might want to look at:


the images on page 9 look like they are not quite the same width. the lower one looks wider (slightly). maybe consider separating them with a little bit of white space.

i agree with losing the indent on your paragraphs...not needed.

i like the way some of the images are vignettes on the page, but i think that a couple of them would be stronger if they didn't fade on the left side, i.e. pages 19 & 25.

also, page 9 has some overflow on the left margin.

all of this is minor stuff....good job.

Looks great. I think you could try to squeeze in a few process images in all that white space. White space is great when you have the room, but with the limitations on page quantity no sense in throwing what many schools will highly value - process.

chab, I've thought about it and I think it's the tone/lighting of the image. Throughout the rest of your portfolio you have very light gradiented images and very black bits, but this one stands out as being that middling grey which is less attractive. And it might be the cut out edge thing too, that's a hard thing to make look good.

at a quick glance... don't have a lot of time to pass through it, it looks nice. good pacing as someone has already mentioned. i like the introductory pages. so many people fail at that, and i think you did a nice job. noce quality images and so forth. nice.

Most important issue which was already mentioned: Way too much text. Watch out for text that bleeds into the space of drawings.

Pacing? This is not a Danielle Steele novel.

hey chaballer - can i ask what kind of experience this portfolio represents? i just entered an arch program; just curious.

looks really nice :)

orochi--no, but if you ignore pacing in any publication the result is a bored audience, whether that audience expects to read or just view.

Yes but "pacing" is a bad term when you're dealing non-fiction. You're either displaying good information or you're not.

Now, I can perfectly understand good title pages, good footnotes et cetera... but quantify what pacing is in a portfolio or academic sense.

Sorry, this just grinds my gears. When it comes to this sort of thing or academic work or newspapers or registries... you either want the information or not. ?Now, I understand that design totally influences whether or not you actually see or read that information... but just saying "pacing" is like saying Family Guy is "funny."

Family Guy is funny but it is a rather complex humor with a cock-and-fart front.

I'd settle with good "organization" over good "pacing."

well, go ahead and ignore it on your own portfolio then. Have fun getting someone to get to the end of it.

You seem to think this is some waffley fuzzy broad term that's not applicable to design, but people who design any publication from fiction to coffee table books to artists books to portfolios to brochures talk about pacing and pay attention to pacing. I probably would have gotten more in-depth if I was trying to make the guy see he had a pacing problem and would have told him how/why it was a problem, but I merely commented that he'd done a good job at pacing. How? He sets up each project with a visually different spread, which contains less information than the other spreads. This means that even if someone has lost interest a bit somewhere during the previous project, they see this spread as a signal that they have another opportunity to begin engaging with the content. When designers neglect this sort of thing, if a person happens to not like the second project in your portfolio and sort of tunes out, they'll never turn back in. Happens all the time, you see someone page carefully through the beginning of a portfolio, then somewhere along the line they start flipping through faster and faster, until something catches their eye. That something can be extra white space, a full-color page/spread, a full-bleed image if the rest of the images are smaller, a big piece of type, really anything that breaks the pattern of information presentation or quantity established throughout the major content pages.

But really, if you feel like having a monotonous boring portfolio that people only really look at the first five pages of, because you don't like the admit that pacing is important, be my guest.

TL;DR

Pacing doesn't exist in academic journals... how many times has a researcher warmed you up to a wall of data?

QUANTIFY, MO'FO'.

I'm just saying because I have personally do layout for some of the biggest names in the publishing industry.

I'd like you to enlighten a Society of News Design winner.

you didn't read because too long, or was the pacing off?

dude (or lady, if appropriate), no need to be churlish. rationalist's explanation made sense. she wasn't critiquing, just saying it was readable. why is that a problem?

also, who cares if you got an award? a lot of people here have awards.

imagine if feynman stopped working on QED just cause all those nobel laureates told him he was a moron? the world would be different i tell you. totally different, i say! academic journals indeed.

The comments are qualified simply by their presence on this particular thread, as being related to portfolios. Your the one who brought in academic journals, which are totally unrelated. People reading academic journals have already bought into the content (often financially as well, they want to get their money's worth). On the other hand, people usually have zero buy-in to someone's portfolio. If it is not designed to keep or recapture their attention throughout, then they have no reason to expend effort on to pay attention to it. I don't know what relevance academic journals have: portfolios are not academic journals. Just because you design academic journals, even if you do it really well, does not mean that you know what a portfolio needs.

AND DON'T CALL ME NAMES.

urgh, "You're the one..." hate when I do that...

I know its already been said. I think you have too much text. Your images need to explain themselves. Someone reviewing 1000s of portfolios is not going to have time to read very much if at all. See if you can get away with just one sentence describing each project and let your graphics work harder at explaining your ideas. Use of definitions is also hokey. The graphic on page 6-7 need to be cleaned up in particular. Also my sense is that process can be more important than final rendered work. They want to know how you think and solve problems, so make sure that process is very clear.

Actually I think the amount of text is acceptable and I wouldn't put anything less. I wouldn't assume that everyone who looks through a portfolio will understand everything that is going on with the images.

The text and images are balanced nicely and I think with the title pages that give a broad overview of each project it allows the reader to choose if they want to read the additional text on the following pages or not. Each person who views the portfolio will be looking for different information and not every reviewer just wants to play picture pages so I think it is best to try to cover all your bases. I think it would be far worse to not include the text and have someone not understand the work and probably just toss it in the trash.

"I think it would be far worse to not include the text and have someone not understand the work and probably just toss it in the trash."

Which is exactly what will happen if the images aren't telling the story.
You should trust me on this one, the people that matter are not going to read the text.

whatever dude.

The decision to include substantial text was (in theory) an educated decision.

I AM WELL AWARE NO ONE READS TEXT.

This is my third portfolio, the first, halfway through my education was a book. I couldnt understand how I could show the projects and not have ALL of my thoughts and ideas come across - so I explained EVERYTHING. Resulting in of course the worst thing ever.

The second portfolio had no text, and came across as naked. Interviews with it felt awkward. It almost seems like lack of text belittled the projects. I feel like even if NOT read, the presence of text on a page can intuitively be recognized as conscious thought.

I definitely did not include EVERYTHING in this newer version however, all text I included is relevant content to each project - it does not repeat itself, and it clarifies the graphics.

Should the images and work explain itself without text?
In a perfect world. While waiting on that perfect world to evolve, I used text to hopefully achieve a better balance compositionally, be it read or not read. However, in the chance that it IS read, it is relevant and very reinforcing to the graphics.

It feels like a win/win?

I think you made the right decision. I've actually followed on a similar path. My graduate school application was pretty dense. How it got me in I have no idea other than that someone on the selection committee must have been a reader.

It's true about the text making the page even visually look better. I find it's the same with presentation boards. Obviously no one is going to read the text on a presentation board but it just looks more complete. I've actually known people to put generic text on boards for that reason, although that is going too far.

Again, I think if there was pages of text you would have a problem but this seems pretty reasonable and gives the reader an option to read it or not. No sense on limiting your options.